This disclosure relates generally to the field of wager games and more particularly to methods and apparatus for providing notice to a player of their progression towards an award of a bonus game during play of a reel-type wager game. The methods are applicable in a variety of game playing formats, for example physical slot machines, electronic video gaming terminals, and computer workstations playing wager games over a computer network.
In reel-type games such as slots, one or more reels are provided, each of which contain a multitude of symbols distributed around the circumference of the reel. When a player places a wager (e.g., by placing a coin in the machine) they are then permitted to spins the reels. Each reel comes to rest, with typically with either one of the symbols, or a space in between the symbols, in alignment with a pay line. The player wins according to whether a particular winning symbol or combination of symbols is present on the pay line. In a simple three-reel slot machine game, the pay line is the horizontal line going across the middle of the reels. In other reel-type games, such as an array of 5×3 symbols which all “spin” during a turn of play, the “pay line” refers to a particular combination of positions of symbols in the 5×3 array which are used to determine if a winning result was achieved.
The game of slots can be played on a video gaming terminal with a graphical user interface, e.g., a dedicated gaming machine such as found in a casino. In the case of a video gaming terminal, the user interface displays an image of a set of reels. Animation effects are used to simulate the spinning action. A computer software program, which may be resident in the video gaming terminal, randomly generates a result for a simulated spin of the reels, and the result is presented on the user interface.
Slots games are also played over a computer network, e.g., by a player using a personal computer which has established a connection to a gaming server. In this later situation, the gaming server generates results of play and transmits the results over the computer network to the computer for display.
The popularity of video slot games has increased due to the incorporation of bonus games into such video slot games. A bonus game is generally distinct from the underlying video slot game and provides a player with entertainment, and also additional opportunities to win game prizes.
The play of bonus games may utilize the reels of the video slot game itself (“reel-based bonus games”), or, alternatively, may occur on a separate bonus screen (“non-reel-based bonus games”).
The most common reel-based bonus game consists of an award of “free spins”, in which the player is provided with a quantity of further play of the underlying video slot game at no cost to the player, while at the same time allowing the player to win game prizes in the usual manner. For purposes of determining a payout for a winning result in accordance with a pay table, the amount wagered per spin during a “free spins” game is typically fixed, e.g. at $1.00, but again, the “free spins” do not result in the player's account being debited.
Other types of reel-based bonus games feature the addition of wild multipliers in the reels, randomly-changing symbols, cascading features where winning combinations of symbols disappear and are replaced by further symbols, “expanding wilds” where a wild symbol replicates to cover an entire reel of the video slot game on which it appears, and slide features in which a reel symbol replicates across multiple reels.
Non-reel-based bonus games allow game designers unlimited scope for creativity. The simplest such bonus game is a “pick-a-box” feature in which the player is presented with a number of choices and has to select items in order to win prizes. A variation of this bonus game is the so-called “Pick until Pop” game in which the player continues to select items until a terminating item is selected. A further category of non-reel-based bonus games is based on a wheel spin in which a player is awarded a prize that is a function of a position at which the wheel comes to rest. Another category of non-reel-based bonus games is multi-level games in which selection of a correct item allows the player to progress to a higher level of prizes that may also include a progressive jackpot.
It is also known for a single underlying video slots game to have a combination bonus game comprising both reel-based bonus features and non-reel-based bonus features, such as the features described in the previous paragraph.
The underlying video slot game requires a trigger event to occur in order to launch the bonus game. Various types of trigger events are known in the art. One type of trigger event is the occurrence of a predefined combination of trigger symbols on a pay line of the underlying video slot game. This combination of trigger symbols which must be present to trigger the launch of the bonus game is usually included in the pay table of the video slot game. For example, the bonus game may be triggered by a game outcome in which three or more trigger symbols appear on any active pay line of the underlying video slot game. Alternatively, the required number of trigger symbols need not all appear on a single pay line, but could be scattered in any positions in the reel display area of the video slot game. As a further alternative, the bonus game may be triggered randomly. As a yet further alternative, the bonus game may be triggered by the occurrence of a “wind-up” in which the appearance of a predetermined combination of symbols on a subset of the reels of the video slots game initiates a random outcome on the remaining reels of the game. In all of these prior art scenarios, the bonus game is triggered based on the results of a single play or spin of the underlying video slot game.